Tuttle-led Panthers aim high

Bryan Tuttle remembers last year's state playoffs well.

All too well.

The Hibriten junior was on the mound for the Panthers' second-round loss at West Henderson, a 12-1, five-inning downer to a state power.

“That game was a wake-up call,” Tuttle says.

It appears Tuttle - and the Panthers - are now awake.

Last year, Hibriten finished the season 11-13 and notched its first playoff win in 16 years, dropping Pisgah 9-2 in the first round. Most of the group that accomplished the feat returned this season with more on the to-do list. The Panthers have done, too, winning the conference title and a school record 20 games.

Tuttle probably embodies the current state of the Hibriten program as well as anyone. Last season, he was in the Panthers' pitching rotation and won a handful of games. But he - like his teammates - wasn't satisfied and returned more determined than ever to take the next step.

Tuttle, who will start tonight's first-round playoff game at home against Ashe County (7 p.m.), enters with a 10-1 record and is clearly the guy the Panthers want on the mound in the crucial situations. He's embracing those outings.

“I've learned to look over (the pressure) and go out and pitch as well as I can,” Tuttle says.

He sports a 2.06 earned run average, has struck out 60 batters and has two saves. The opposition is batting just .186 against the right-hander, who has shown his competitiveness on more than one occasion this spring. His lone loss this year is to once-beaten South Caldwell, the defending 4-A state champions. He's won eight straight games.

“The big key is he throws strikes,” says Hibriten coach Terry Henthorne, who describes Tuttle as having a rubber arm. “I think our kids have a good deal of confidence with him on the hill.”

Tuttle, who threw 130 pitches in a game recently, throws four pitches including a fastball, change-up, curveball and a knuckleball he's tossed since his Little League days. He's currently working on adding a forkball.

“He's got a whole arsenal,” says Panther catcher Trent Reynolds. “When his knuckleball is on, it's amazing. Pretty much everything he throws is nasty.”

And with Tuttle, it's not just what he throws, but how he throws it. He throws all his pitches with an over the top motion, then changes his arm angle on his fastball and curveball to mix things up.

“It's a different look that just gets batters thinking,” he says.

Hibriten meets familiar foe

Two weeks ago, Hibriten played a seemingly odd game for the late juncture of the season when it traveled to Ashe County for what seemed like a meaningless non-conference game.

Henthorne wanted to see how his Panthers (20-5) would fare in a playoff-style outing, taking a long bus ride and then playing a team it doesn't often see. The Panthers won 16-2 in five innings.

When the playoff brackets were released this week, Hibriten was again matched up with Ashe, a fate that provided Henthorne with all kinds of coaching material that indicated he had an idea this matchup was going to happen all along.

“That's kind of the way things have rolled this year,” Henthorne says, laughing at the irony.

Ashe (9-10) enters the playoffs as a wild-card team, plenty hungry for revenge and a first-round upset.

“That won't be the same Ashe County team we saw a couple weeks ago,” Henthorne says.

Hibriten is having its best year ever, to this point. The 1991 Panther team lost in the regional final and this year's outfit would like to make a similar run.

“I think we're in a good spot right now,” Henthorne says. “We're healthy, we're playing well and still running on some adrenaline from the (conference) tournament (win).”

But after feeling the sting of defeat in last year's playoffs, the Panthers aren't taking anything for granted.

“We're making sure this year, we're going to be ready,” Tuttle says.

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